Mudo-in Temple 68 Kyushu pilgrimage

Mudo-in, temple number 68 on the Kyushu 108 pilgrimage is a small rural temple to the southeast of Mount Kurokami near Takeo in Saga.

It claims some connection with the Shugendo center that was active on that mountain.

The temple was established in 1487.

The honzon is a standing Fudo. In the grounds are another small Fudo, and a Kurokami Eye Fudo, said to cure eye diseases.

It is also temple 26 on the Kyushu Fudo pilgrimage.

Unusually, for this pilgrimage, it was an inhabited temple with someone home.

The old priest showed me a photo of his brother, also a Buddhist priest, taken meeting the pope. According to my recent research, he is no longer the head priest at this temple but has been replaced by a much younger one. I strongly suspect he may be a son of the family.

Though it was late March, a single plum tree was sporting new blossoms. Another thing I noticed were the extremely worn small komainu.

The previous post in this series on day 71 of my Kyushu pilgrimage was the Ono Tenmangu Shrine just across the valley.

Kiyama Shrine

 

Kiyama Shrine is a large shrine on the lower slopes of a mountain to the south of Maniwa in Okayama.

Above the shrine, at 430 m altitude is Kiyama Temple. Until 1868 the shrine and temple were one site called Kiyama-gu.

In 1868 the shrine and temple were separated and I believe many of the current shrine buildings date from that time.

In 1962 the shrine buildings were dismantled and reconstructed at the current site much lower down the mountain.

The Inner Shrine, the Okumiya, remained at the original site next to the temple. 

It dates to the late 16th century and is a prefectural Important Cultural property. It features in the last 2 photos of this post and when I was visiting a new copper roof had been finished.

The shrine-temple complex was founded in 816 by none other than Kobo Daishi.

The shrine was known as Kiyama Gozu Tenno, a branch of what is now called Yasaka Shrine in Gion, Kyoto.

Long conflated with Gozu Tenno, the main kami is now considered to be Susano.

Gozu Tenno was also considered a manifestation of Yakushi Nyorai, the main deity/Buddha of the temple.

On the approach up to the shrine is a Zuijinmon gate with a fine pair of zuijin. Also there are a pair of fox statues.

One of the secondary shrines is Zenkaku Inari., a branch of Fushimi Inari established here in 1714 by the monk Zenkakubo.

Fushimi Inari was considered a manifestation of Kannon that was also enshrined in the main temple along with Yakushi, so we can see that the kami and the buddhas at such a syncretic site as Kiyama-gu, were very connected and/or complementary

Kiyama Shrine has an Emaden, a hall existing solely for the display of ema, votive tablets.

These ema are not the small, standard-sized boards now common at shrines and temples, but rather large paintings, see the two photos just above.

The size of the shrine and temle is an indication that it was well supported not only by local notables and rulers but also by regional warlords.

Signs on the old Izumo Kaido not far away indicate that it was also well known among a wider public

Worth looking out for are the hundreds of paper lanterns hung from the ceiling of the main hall.

Also worth noting is the unusual style of shimenawa.

I walked here from Tsuyama on a rainy summer day as Kiyama Temple was the next pilgrimage temple on the Chugoku Kannon pilgrimage.

There is no public transport to Kiyama Shrine. It is very close to the Chugoku Expressway and is near the Ochiai Interchange. The closest train station is Mimasaka Ochiai Station, 5 kilometers away.

The ox statue is in front of the Tenmangu Shrine which was probably established in the mid-19th century.

The previous post in this series on day 5 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon pilgrimage was on Sakura Shrine.

Ono Tenmangu Shrine

 

Ono is a small agricultural settlement in the mountains between Takeo Onsen and Arita in Saga. The larger area is called Yamauchi, and it is now part of Takeo.

Walking between Kurokami Shrine and the next temple on my pilgrimage the tall banners indicated that some kind of matsuri was about to take place.

Ono Tenmangu is an unremarkable, fairly standard village shrine. There was no signboard and no-one around so I could get no further information.

Other than a single pair of komainu and a pair of lanterns there were no other decorations.

There were two separate Inari shrines.

As a Tenmangu the main enshrined deity would be Tenjin, the deified form of Sugawara Michizane.

It is unknown whether the shrine was established as a Tenmangu or an ujigami shrine that later adopted Tenjin.

The previous post in this series was on Kurokami Shrine.

Hikasaji Temple 32 Iwami Ginzan Kannon pilgrimage

 

Hikasaji is a small, Soto Zen temple about one kilometer upstream from my village. I was walking day 6 of my walk along the Iwami Mandal Kannon pilgrimage. heading upriver to the next couple of temples on that pilgrimage.

Hikasaji is not on that pilgrimage, but is temple 32 on the Iwami Ginzan Kannon pilgrimage, a recently rediscovered pilgrimage route from the Edo period.

In the early Edo period the Tokugawa government took over the silver mine at Iwami Ginzan and made it their territory. It encompassed all the land from this side of the Gonokawa River up to the border with Izumo. The Iwami Kannon pilgrimage I have been walking covers all of the Iwami area including the other side of the river. I am guessing the new Iwami Ginzan Kannon pilgrimage dates back to then.

I can find no information on when Hikasaji was founded. The Kannon statue that was the honzon no longer exists, but there is a newish Kannon statue on the grounds.

The temple gate is quite nice, and there is also a small bell tower.

The documents about the old Ginzan pilgrimage were recently discovered in an old storehouse belonging to a former samurai family a few more kilometers upstream near to the next temple I will stop at.

The previous post in this series on day 6 of my walk was on the koinobori hanging across the river in front of the temple.